In methods for processing silver halide color photographic light-sensitive materials, it has been desired to simplify, speed up and stabilize the processing and many improved methods have been proposed. However, none of the proposed methods offers a complete solution.
Particularly, speeding up of such processing serves to reduce the time required to finish color photographs and thus many techniques have been reported. These are directed to the speeding up of such processes as color developing, desilvering and water washing.
The purpose of the present invention is to improve the desilvering speed in the desilvering process, in particular in the bleach-fixing treatment. The most commomly used means for speeding up the bleach-fixing process is to employ a desilvering accelerator and a variety of techniques directed to such an accelerator have been proposed. For instance, as such desilvering accelerator there have, for example, been used compounds having mercapto or disulfide groups; thiazolidine derivatives; thiourea derivatives; iodides; polyethylene oxides; and polyamine compounds.
However, in a low silver content light-sensitive material such as color paper, on which the coating amount of silver is not more than 0.8 g/m.sup.2, it is found that the foregoing developing accelerator actually lowers the bleaching rate and, therefore, such a solution is not preferable in this case. Another generally used method for speeding up the desilvering process is to increase the concentration of bleaching and fixing agents. For example, the bleaching agent is generally used in an amount of not less than 0.13 M and the fixing agent in an amount of not less than 0.60 M. In fact, this method is an effective means for processing light-sensitive materials whose coating amount of silver is not less than 0.9 g/m.sup.2. However, it is not effective for processing the low silver content light-sensitive materials with which the present invention is concerned, and on the contrary, it is found that the method results in the lowering of the desilvering rate.
On the other hand, pyrazoloazole type magenta couplers are known and disclosed in various articles such as Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication (hereinafter referred to as "J.P. KOKAI") Nos. 59-162548, 60-43659, 59-171956, 60-172982 and 60-33552 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,061,432 and a various studies have been made regarding these couplers owing to their excellent color phase. Moreover, pyrazolone magenta couplers are also known to be excellent in light fastness, or disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication for Opposition Purpose (hereinafter referred to as "J.P. KOKOKU") No. 53-34044 and J.P.KOKAI Nos. 55-62454 and 57-35858.
However, if light-sensitive materials containing these magenta couplers are processed in desilvering or water washing and/or stabilization processes in which the processing time is reduced or the amount of washing water used is substantially reduced, it is found that magenta stains are liable to occur with passage of time. Therefore, various methods have been investigated to solve such problem.
However, the use of the conventional antidiscoloring or stain resistant methods was not found to be an effective solution to the problem. In this connection, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 2,360,290, U.K. Pat. No. 1,363,921 and J.P. KOKAI No. 58-24141, which disclose the use of hydroquinone derivatives; U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,079, which discloses gallic acid derivatives; U.S. Pat. No. 2,735,765 and J.P. KOKOKU No. 52-6623, which disclose p-alkoxyphenols; U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,300 and J.P. KOKAI No. 52-35633, which disclose p-oxyphenol derivatives; U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,455, which discloses bisphenols for antidiscoloring techniques; and J.P. KOKAI No. 49-11330 and J.P. KOKOKU No. 56-8346 for stain resistant techniques.
As discussed above, there has been a need for the development of techniques which make it possible to eliminate the foregoing drawbacks associated with the use of the aforementioned magenta couplers.